The Balearic High Court has ruled in favour of an appeal by the Fundación Toro de Lidia and has annulled a Calvia town hall declaration in 2015 that Calvia was anti-bullfighting.
This declaration, made in October 2015, stated that the municipality was "a friend of animals" and was "opposed to the practice of bullfighting". The declaration expressed the wish that bullfights would not be held in any bullring in the Balearics.
The court has ruled that the staging of bullfights is not a municipal decision. The declaration, in the court's opinion, was of "a political nature". "Even though a majority of councillors considered it to be of interest to residents, it was not within municipal powers."
The Fundación Toro de Lidia says that "none of the cities or municipalities that want to declare themselves anti-bullfighting have the legal capacity". To do so, as of now, would be "illegal".
Many town halls in Mallorca have declared themselves to be anti-bullfighting. Calvia is one of them. There is no bullring in Calvia, and only five still exist - Palma, Inca and Muro are used for bullfights, Alcudia has effectively banned bullfights (it did so by not extending a concession), while the Felanitx bullring has been abandoned for many years.
In the three municipalities where bullfights are currently staged, neither Palma nor Inca town hall support them. Muro owns its bullring and has been a municipality to declare itself pro-bullfighting, even if the current administration has rather downplayed this.